To start off, look for an Anubisath Idol and Emerald Proto-Whelp. Level them to 25 and then use the following guide to level those pets on your list.viewtopic.php?f=10&t=4580

Take note that last guide is slightly dated. Pay attention to comments later in the thread for modifications to some of the strats. Once you have a few other pets from your list you can start using them as the previous guides recommend.

Lolski85 wrote:How do I find these pet xp boost things? what should I level to 25?

Well, there are three things that boost pet xp. There's the lesser pet treats, pet treats, and the hat. The hat is given via an achievement. You have to defeat a certain number of trainers to get it. The lesser treats and pet treats can be bought in your garrison at the pet battle person or you can do the pandarian fabled beast dailies to get the lesser treats and the other one you can buy via the celestial tournament. You can have all three active at once but you should know they don't stack or refresh so if you, as an example, click the lesser pet treat when your current lesser pet treat has 30 more seconds then you've wasted that pet treat. Just a friend FYI.

If your goal is to do the tournament, then I'd suggest you level the pets you need for the four final battles (the last four are the celestial pets) and focus each week on the three trainers there. There are three sets (nine total) but you only fight three each tourny so don't feel overwhelmed. That's what I did, anyway. I made a list of the pets I though I'd need for the tourney and leveled those up during the week.

For the tourny, though, remember you can't heal your pets at all (save in the actual battle.) It helped me to do what I felt was the strongest trainer first, thus if I had to restart, I wouldn't have to do them all over again. Personally, for the final four, I did the kitten, the ox, the dragon, and the crane in that order. And I got multiples of certain kinds when I was first starting out just to be careful. I think I have some 9 or 10+ foxes at level 25 only because I use foxes for the kitten and ox battle. XD

Currently I think the best way to get the most levels is to buy both pet xp cookies at the garrison (they stack). Go to Pandaria (this assumes you can beat all Pandaria trainers easily), go to the first trainer in a good route, eat both cookies, and have at it.

You've probably noticed, Blizz makes you work. There's no way to get a new pet higher than the highest level pet you already have. So you need to battle wild pets to gradually level your guys. Once you finally max out one of your pets to 25, it gets a lot easier to level your other pets and start working on teams that stand a chance in the Celestial Tournament and the Garrison menagerie dailies. In addition to capturing pets and getting them as drops, AH prices are reasonable on many of them. And you can borrow pets from friends.

It looks like your highest pets are in the range of 16 - 17. Best strategy now may be to find zones with wild pets around the same level and spend some time fighting them, moving on to higher-level zones as you work a few of your pets up. It's slow and boring but kind of necessary.

Ranok wrote:You've probably noticed, Blizz makes you work. There's no way to get a new pet higher than the highest level pet you already have. So you need to battle wild pets to gradually level your guys. Once you finally max out one of your pets to 25, it gets a lot easier to level your other pets and start working on teams that stand a chance in the Celestial Tournament and the Garrison menagerie dailies. In addition to capturing pets and getting them as drops, AH prices are reasonable on many of them. And you can borrow pets from friends.

It looks like your highest pets are in the range of 16 - 17. Best strategy now may be to find zones with wild pets around the same level and spend some time fighting them, moving on to higher-level zones as you work a few of your pets up. It's slow and boring but kind of necessary.

However, they do give you a free boost to 25 when you get your level 3 garrison now, so you can boost 1 pet to 25 and then you can buy others as needed. No need to go through the "first" levelling grind anymore.

Jerebear wrote:However, they do give you a free boost to 25 when you get your level 3 garrison now, so you can boost 1 pet to 25 and then you can buy others as needed. No need to go through the "first" levelling grind anymore.

Good point, and one I hadn't thought about. There's still the Pets Versus Pests quest you need to get your level 1 menagerie and since Blizz has nerfed it I suppose it's easily soloable with a 25 like a Zandalari Anklerender or Kneebiter.